1 - The Splinter
by NorvegianWood3
Summary: Tess has finally told Daisy everything about the Sandbrook fiasco and her role in it. First chapter of The Hardys Chronicles. :)


**Keywords:** Broadchurch; Alec x Tess (sorry); Alec's POV; post Season 2; teen

 **Summary** : Tess has just told Daisy everything about the Sandbrook fiasco and her role in it. 

"Why the hell did you tell her?"

Tess looked at him and sighed. "Hello Alec. Please, come in."

He stepped inside what once had been his home, bringing a whiff of autumn wind with him. "Why you told her? I thought we had an agreement."

"I'm sorry. She deserved to know the truth."

"Oh, did she?"

"Yeah."

Alec took a deep breath. 'Calm down,' he chanted to himself glancing at the stairs. "Is she home?"

"No. Sleepover at Emily's."

"How did she take it?"

Tess shrugged, staring at a generic point at his side.

He felt suddenly drained, as if he had been shouting in the futile attempt to communicate with someone beyond earshot.

"She thinks I'm a slut."

Alec flinched at the word. She wasn't going to make that easy. Heck, was it even possible to make that easy? That was the exact reason why they had agreed not to tell her. "That's quite understandable." He realized how wrong his words sounded a second too late.

Tess stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. Maybe you should go now."

He rubbed his hand over his face. "Look, I'm sorry. What I wanted to say is that ... it's understandable that she's upset." He sighed. "Can we rewind the last three minutes and start again?"

She headed to the kitchen. "I'll make some tea."

Alec sank on the couch. Outside, a tree branch kept on rattling against the windowpane, barely visible against the darkening sky. He forced himself to focus on its moving silhouette to avoid his nearer surroundings. Everything inside that house was a ghost from his previous life, and he knew that the best way to hush ghosts away was to ignore them.

He was slowly starting to relax when the sudden noise of broken pottery, followed by a colourful curse, brought his attention back indoors. Moved by instinct, he leapt to the kitchen.

"Tess?"

She was sitting on one of the stools, holding her right foot, a curtain of dark curls hiding her face. A few feet away lay the remains of an orange cup. "I just stepped on a splinter."

"Maybe if you wouldn't walk barefoot ... " He came closer and noticed blood starting to seep through her fingers.

Opening a drawer, he yanked a clean dishcloth and kneeled in front of her. "Here, let me see."

"It's just a cut."

It was just a cut, but Alec tended to it on autopilot. He made sure that the wound was clean, and then applied the cloth on it to stop the blood, rubbing the top of her foot with his thumb. As soon as the bleeding stopped he went upstairs to fetch iodine and bandages. He knew where everything was; it was a simple, practical task he could do well and while doing it he forgot everything else. He could vaguely feel Tess' eyes on him, but he didn't meet them until the wound was properly dressed. She was staring at him as if she had just seen a ghost. Was that what she was seeing? A ghost of his old self? Of a kinder, less bitter man? Shaking the thought off, he stood and went about the broken cup on the floor, sweeping its splinters with a broom and throwing them in the garbage.

"You don't have to clean after my mess, Alec."

"I know." He put the kettle on the stove, tossed a bag of Earl Gray in the remaining mug and poured hot water over it. Sitting in front of her, he handed her the steaming cup.

"Can I have a cookie too?"

Unable to read her, Alec frowned and handed her an Oreo from the cookie jar.

"Thank you." This time she smiled at him; a real, sincere smile that still made something inside him flutter.

Unable to smile back, he just nodded. "Daisy sent me a text asking if she could stay at my place for a while."

"Well, that's nice."

"You didn't know?"

"No. She's hardly speaking at me."

"Tess, why ..."

"Because she's not a little girl anymore and deserves to know the truth. Because I needed the last two years to be over. Because now you're back and ... she has you too." Holding the cup with both hands, Tess watched the light reflect on its liquid dark surface. "I'm sorry I broke another promise."

"This isn't going to work."

"This what?"

"The two of us, competing for her love."

"That's not what I was suggesting."

"What were you suggesting then?"

Tess opened her mouth to answer, then closed it and sighed. "I don't know. I just wanted to ... put things right, I guess."

"By clearing your conscience?"

She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and nodded. "Maybe."

And then Alec understood: she was trying. She was imperfect, sometimes had a bad temper and was almost as bad as he was when it came to voice her feelings, but she was really trying to make things better. She came from a strict, non-affective family that made her believe that love had to be gained with good performances, and she had always been scared of mediocrity. He knew this because Tess herself had confessed him that that was the reason why she always tried to over-achieve, and yet at the end of their marriage he had made her feel unimportant. He had never really thought she was unimportant of course, but - blinded by his own fears - he had taken strong, independent Tess for granted. He had been the first one to break the promise they had made to each other in that church so many years ago.

He took another Oreo from the jar and put it on the table in front of her. "I'm sorry."

Tess' eyes moved from the cookie to him, confused. "For what?"

It took him a few seconds to gather the courage to answer the truth. "For having made you unhappy."

"But you also made me very happy. All my happiest memories have you in them," she said, smiling sadly.

"I still failed you."

"You just fell out of love."

"I never did."

"Alec... "

"What about you?"

"It's complicated. I ... " Tess shook her head in frustration, her voice catching. "We have to focus on Daisy now. She comes first."

Alec nodded. That was going to be a long, bumpy road. A road of learning and forgiving, that might or might not take him home in the end. It wasn't much, but at least now he had a path to follow.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

On the door, she took his hand. "Thank you for the cookies."

Breathing in the cool night air, he managed to smile. The sky was low and full of moon lighted clouds; summer was really over. "Let me know what your daughter decides to do."

She nodded, letting go of his hand.

Before turning the corner, he stopped to look back. She was still on the door, barefoot, looking toward him.

Alec waved to her and Tess waved back.


End file.
